Parents are working less, caring more

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It is the emerging solution to the work and family dilemma: both
parents work part-time and each looks after the children while the
other is at work.

More couples are choosing this model because it enables them to
spend time with their children and pursue their careers.

Demographers predict that by 2010 as many as one in five couples
will be working part-time so they can care for their children.

One demographer, Bernard Salt, believes the option of part-time
work and parenting is becoming more popular because it aligns with
generations X and Y values of flexibility, accountability and
shared responsibility.

"They are both sharing the financial burden; importantly, they
are also sharing the parenting burden," Mr Salt said.

It also accommodates male desires to be family-focused, and
female desires to stay in at work.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics Year Book says female
participation in the paid workforce rose from 45 per cent in 1984
to 56 per cent last year. The part-time workforce, dominated by
women, rose by 20 per cent in the past five years.

Increasing numbers of women are delaying starting a family.
Twenty years ago the median age of first-time mothers was 26.8; now
it is 30.2. Women are having fewer babies and the fertility rate of
1.76 babies per woman is below replacement level.

With an ageing population, this means that within five years
childless couples will outnumber couples with children, according
to the bureau's projections.

The fertility rate has stabilised in recent years, which Peter
McDonald, a demographer at the Australian National University,
attributes to a growing trend for both partners to have part-time
jobs and share parenting tasks.

"It is a kind of re-sorting of values away towards family and
away from work," he said. "For a lot of people it seems to be an
affordable option."

Brendan Jones, an IT executive living in the inner west, works
three days a week and looks after his 18-month-old twins on the two
days when his wife works. Mr Jones said it was "the best thing I've
done", enabling him to forge a close relationship with his
twins.

"My wife saw my daughter take her first step, I saw my son take
his first step," he said.

Warren Linton, an IT executive who has worked part-time and
looked after his two children for five years, believes it is harder
than working full-time or staying at home full-time. "You get the
best of both worlds - something of work, time with the kids - but
you also have all the downsides of both," Mr Linton said.

Dual part-time work requires discipline: good time-management,
completing tasks ahead of deadline, ensuring colleagues know when
you are available and making an extra effort to stay in the loop at
work.

"Part-time work is far more stressful than full-time work in
lots of subtle ways," Mr Jones said. "The workload may not reflect
the fact you're only there three days."

Dual part-timers are also penalised by the way the Federal
Government's financial assistance for families is set up.

Even though these couples may earn the equivalent of one income,
they are ineligible for the Family Tax Benefit B because it is paid
only to families with one parent at home full-time.

But dual part-timers still think it is the best way to manage
work and family. "We both wanted to work, we both wanted to jointly
parent our kids, we're both able to do this," Mr Linton said.